New nonprofit group looks to create human tissue research center in Lee

LIZ FREEMAN

7:30 PM, Apr 13, 2012

The nonprofit Southwest Florida Global Research Institute was formed as the parent organization and seeks private financial support to establish tissue repository for research purposes.
Daily News Opinion Editor Jeff Lytle talks with Kevin Taylor, managing director of the research institute; and Nick Jacobs, managing director of the Southwest Florida research institute, about the organization.

FORT MYERS - The research would involve the use of discarded tissue and blood from patients in hospitals from surgical procedures, biopsies and tissue donations to help researchers determine how genetics and cellular changes contribute to diseases.

Investors interested in advancing Southwest Florida as a player in medical research may see an opportunity with a proposed human tissue repository center in Fort Myers, the group behind the project says.

The nonprofit Southwest Florida Global Research Institute recently was formed as the parent organization and seeks private financial support to establish the tissue repository for research purposes.

The goal is to raise $5 million although the tissue center could open with $500,000, said Kevin Taylor, managing director of the newly formed research institute. A broader, long-range plan is for the tissue repository to be the hub for more medical research and biotech undertakings in the area, Taylor said.

"We're planting the seed and the seed is the repository," explained Taylor, formerly the director of fund development for Cleveland Clinic Naples and previously the executive director of the Southwest Florida Symphony Orchestra.

The research would involve the use of discarded tissue and blood from patients in hospitals from surgical procedures, biopsies and tissue donations to help researchers determine how genetics and cellular changes contribute to diseases.

"It takes discarded tissue and puts it to scientific use," said Nick Jacobs, managing director of the Southwest Florida research institute.

"It takes discarded tissue and puts it to scientific use," said Nick Jacobs, managing director of the Southwest Florida research institute.

The tissue repository would have a relationship with the Pennsylvania-based Windber Research Institute and would utilize its research protocols, but it wouldn't be controlled by Windber, Jacobs said.

"It would be your program to benefit the region," Jacobs said.

In 2000, Jacobs co-founded the Windber institute in Windber, Pa., which today conducts the Clinical Breast Care Project in conjunction with the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., among other research efforts on behalf of various government entities.

"This is not a start-up," Taylor said. "We are using their knowledge and bringing it here."

But key is launching it first and that means raising private dollars, Taylor said.

No overtures have been made to local government leaders for funding, which he said sets this project apart from the effort by some Southwest Florida politicians two years ago to lure the Maine-based Jackson Laboratory, a nonprofit genetic research group, to Collier County.

The Lee County Economic Development Office is aware of the tissue repository project and will continue to be supportive but the office doesn't have an active role in bringing it to fruition, said Jennifer Berg, spokeswoman for that office.

"There would certainly be a number of synergies here for that type of project with our demographics and with the health-care industry that we have here in the local community," she said.

The Southwest Florida research group doesn't have an application under way for economic incentive funding, Berg said.

"It is not something we are looking at at this point from an incentive standpoint," Berg said.

On the fundraising front, one donor from Captiva Island has committed $100,000 and relationships with other potential donors are developing. Another donor has offered a 20,000-square-foot building for lease on Treeline Avenue near Southwest Florida International Airport.

On the fundraising front, Taylor said one donor from Captiva Island has committed $100,000 and relationships with other potential donors are developing. Another donor has offered a 20,000-square-foot building for lease on Treeline Avenue near Southwest Florida International Airport.

"It is better than we hoped — it has a clean room already," Taylor said, referring to an enclosed space with a circulation system that controls against dust and other particulates to prevent contamination in clinical work.

The building size is much larger than what would be necessary for the tissue center to open; a 2,000-square-foot space would suffice for an initial program. Initial staffing could be five to 10 individuals, from researchers to support staff.

At the same time, some Michigan entrepreneurs have expressed interest in establishing the proposed tissue repository in their state. Taylor said he and Jacobs are focused primarily on Florida.

Jacobs said Southwest Florida is an attractive locale because of its aging and Hispanic populations, both of which can provide tissue needed for research.

What's envisioned is that the research conducted at the tissue repository would focus on neurological and inflammatory diseases.

He said three companies in Pennsylvania are interested in coming to Southwest Florida; he declined to name them, and Taylor said two Florida companies are interested in the region.

Taylor, whose role is the fundraising, is soliciting interest for the tissue repository from Southwest Florida hospital leaders, Florida Gulf Coast University and others. So far the reception has been good, he said.

Letters of support have come from FGCU, the Lee Memorial Health System, Lee Commission Chairman John Manning and others.

The feedback so far is they need to get the tissue repository opened, which would pave the way for potential financial support and collaboration, he said.

Letters of support have come from FGCU, the Lee Memorial Health System, Lee Commission Chairman John Manning and others.

"Please feel free to share with others that based on the ... conceptual vision, the Lee Memorial Health System leadership envisions significant opportunity for our community and is willing to participate and cooperate in the collection of blood and tissue for such research through consenting physicians and patients," Jim Nathan, president and chief executive officer of the hospital system in Lee County, said in a letter.

Taylor said he also met recently with Dr. Allen Weiss, president and chief executive officer of the NCH Healthcare System.